Violet Blackstone's Arc

Chapter 12 of 14

Marcus was still under the oak at dawn when the dog started barking again. Violet stepped onto the porch with a mug in her hand and saw him rise. He was not looking at the house. He was looking down the track. A woman was crawling up the road on her hands and knees. Her shirt was black with blood along one side. She got to the gatepost, put a palm on it, and slid down against the wood. Violet ran. Colton came out of the shed behind her with the axe. Marcus reached the woman first and knelt, hands away from his belt, showing them empty. "Snare wire," Marcus said. "Around the ribs. She cut herself out." The woman's eyes rolled toward Violet. She dug in her pocket and held out a wooden chip. No notch. A rough copy. Someone at a stone had told her the shape of the thing without knowing the trick. "She doesn't have a real one," Colton said. "I know." Violet took the fake chip and closed her hand on it. "Open the gate." Colton did not move. "Open it, Colton." He lifted the beam. They carried her to the porch. Violet cut the shirt back. The wire had gone deep under the arm. The wound was packed with dirt. Violet had bandages and boiled water. She did not have a needle steady enough for what was inside. "She'll die here," Marcus said. "You need a healer." Violet thought of the woven den at the edge of the woods, and the redhaired woman in the rough robe who worked there. Dwyn Fallow. Every patient Dwyn touched woke up glowing for days. That glow could bring trappers to a door. It could also keep a stranger breathing. "Colton. Saddle the mare. You ride to the healing den and you bring Dwyn back. Tell her a woman is bleeding out and I am asking." "If I bring her here she'll leave a trail," Colton said. "People will see the light on the woman for a week." "Then people will see it. Go." He went. Violet packed the wound tight and held pressure. Willow brought cloth. Marcus held the woman's shoulders down when she thrashed. He did it the way a man does who has held wounded people before. Colton came back near dusk with Dwyn on the pillion. Dwyn slid down without a word, washed her hands in the basin Willow set out, and put both palms on the woman's side. She worked an hour. When she lifted her hands, the woman was breathing even. A faint silver light clung to her skin. Dwyn looked at Violet. "She'll live. And anyone within a mile will see her at night for a week." "I know." Violet stood on the porch with the fake chip still in her fist. The gate had held one stranger out and let another in. The rule was already bending. And now her farm would shine in the dark.